GENERAL REMARKS ON EARTHQUAKES. 73 
oscillations; but the shaking now felt was that of 
an elevation of the ground, and was attended by a 
subterraneous noise, like the explosion of a mine at 
a great depth. The most violent concussion, however, 
was preceded by a slight undulating motion, so that 
the inhabitants had time to escape into the streets ; 
and only a few perished, who had betaken them- 
selves for safety to the churches. Half an hour be- 
fore the catastrophe, a strong smell of sulphur was 
experienced near the hill of the convent of St Fran- 
cis; and on the same spot an internal noise, which 
seemed to pass from S.E. to N.W., was heard loud- 
est. Fiames appeared on the banks of the Man- 
zanares and in the Gulf of Cariaco. In describing 
this frightful convulsion of nature, our author en- 
ters upon general views respecting earthquakes, of 
which a very brief account may be here given. 
_ The great earthquakes which interrupt- the long 
series of small shocks, do not appear to have any 
stated times at Cumana, as they have occurred at 
intervals of eighty, of a hundred, and sometimes 
even of less than thirty years ; whereas, on the coasts 
of Peru,—at Lima, for example,—there is, without - 
doubt, a certain degree of regularity in the periodi- 
cal devastations thereby occasioned. 
It has long been believed at Cumana, Acapulco, 
and Lima, that there exists a perceptible relation 
between earthquakes and the state of the atmosphere 
which precedes these phenomena. On the coasts of 
New Andalusia the people become uneasy when, in 
excessively hot weather and after long drought, the 
breeze suddenly ceases, and the sky, clear at the 
zenith, presents the appearance of a reddish vapour 
hear the horizon. But these prognostics are very 
